#it would also spoon feed the audience with the concept of just not being able to express emotion

[vogelmeister]

just found a deleted scene from goud and my god

[aroaceleovaldez]

i’m not in this fandom like that so I didn’t know rick previously said he wasn’t going to write anymore. but is it you feel like he’s milking it? maybe it’s bc i’m more in anime/manga fandoms, but for example it’s common for mangaka to write light novels to accompany their story to add details to characters backgrounds or answer questions that aren’t in the manga, but I would never the concept of it bad writing or disrespectful….isn’t it just expanding the story? maybe I’m just not getting your point. i agree the audience shouldn’t be spoon fed, but nico still having nightmares & hearing voices & planning on going to tartarus seems too big of a plot point to be ignored. & chalice of the gods - that I agree with the spoon feeding, but it’s just simple fanservice, maybe rick missed writing those characters or maybe it’s money idk but I feel like a lot of the fandom looks forward to reading more about Percy, i dont think majority feel disrespected by it. (please also i’m not trying to berate you for not liking tsats and chalice im just curious!)

My problem isn’t that it feels like Rick is milking the series - though he absolutely is. He explicitly stated on his blog that Disney asked him to publish Chalice of the Gods as Percy promotion for the Disney+ show adaptation - but the fact that the way it’s being gone about feels cheap.

I get what you mean by comparing manga, but manga is ultimately a different media form. Manga and comics in general tend to lean more expositional by nature because that’s what’s required of the medium. This also means there’s a lot more room for those kinds of extra content series because the medium inherently provides space for them. That can also be a thing in novels as well - I was in Warrior Cats fandom. Warriors has tons of extra content books and novellas (and manga!). I read Animorphs, which also has lots of extra content books (and 52 books in the main series). I am very familiar with series that have a lot of books and bonus content and etc. But the thing with those extra content books is a.) it’s really easy for them to be bad in the exact same way i was mentioning, where details feel forcibly spoon-fed to you, and b.) they need to provide something new, otherwise they just feel like cheap additions that you’re better off skipping over, and if you do skip them you don’t loose anything. And this is 100% true for manga too! It’s a really common problem!

The point is these books don’t expand the story. We aren’t learning anything new that we wouldn’t be able to extrapolate anyways, and it is okay that we don’t know everything happening in the series. We don’t need to know the Exact Specifics of how Nico and Will got together, or how Percy did his college applications. And this has been true in the series before! We don’t know what happened on Clarisse’s quest in TTC. We don’t know what happened to Reyna and Hylla between Circe’s Island and Camp Jupiter, or even how they got to Circe’s Island in the first place. We still don’t know what happened in Albania. And all of that is fine. Nothing is lost as a result of us not knowing those answers. Heck, actually a great example - in TLO, Nico tells Percy he’s been exploring California looking for leads on his family. We’re told he has a new lead, and then he never brings it up again. We as the audience can presume this was relating to Hazel, but the important part is: We are never told what exactly Nico was doing. We know he was doing some very important personal stuff in California, and that’s it. Even if we presume it was relating to Hazel, there’s still huge gaps in that we don’t know about, like how Nico brought Hazel to Camp Jupiter, how Nico found out about Camp Jupiter in the first place, or how he discovered the Doors of Death were open at all. We know none of that. And that’s a good thing! Because we don’t need to! It’s completely irrelevant and adds nothing more to the story! We know everything we need to know about that and that’s it.

That’s how the end of TOA should have been. Yes, we get a cliffhanger that Nico has some personal destiny stuff, but we’re also explicitly not told the prophecy. That should have been the end of it, and it was SUPPOSED to be the end of it! We’re not gaining anything new by having Nico go to Tartarus again - we’ve seen a popular ship go to Tartarus already (Percy and Annabeth). We know what’s down there. We know what Nico experienced down there. We already know everything we need to know. There’s no point to this. Especially since there’s so many elements of the already established canon that emphasize that the alleged goal of their quest is pointless to begin with. We know what’s going to happen already. We can extrapolate. We don’t need a whole book or 3-book series to explain it to us - that’s the part that’s disrespectful to the audience. It’s saying that You Need To Be Told Exactly What Happens Because We Do Not Trust You To Be Able To Figure It Out On Your Own.

 You brought up a great word, actually - It feels like fan-service. And that’s a bad thing. Fan-service is not a good thing - it is almost always bad writing with no heart in it, just spoon-feeding the audience, and it’s disrespectful to the readers. TSATS just feels like solangelo fan-service by trying to make it Percabeth 2 and dancing Will and Nico around in front of the audience a bit more. We aren’t gaining anything new, and there’s no reason to bother with TSATS when you can get the exact same thing or more from fanworks. At best, TSATS could have maybe worked as a short story like Sword of Hades, or we could have gotten a Will short story like how The Stolen Chariot gave us more depth on Clarisse. But as it stands currently, it’s just cheap. It just feels like excuses for Rick to explicitly canonize random things because he doesn’t trust us to figure it out as being coded (this teeters dangerously on the JK Rowling approach), or shoehorn in myths he hasn’t used yet, which he was already doing in TOA and that turned out racist at worst and a mess at best.

There are absolutely extra content novellas I would love to see. Everybody’s been asking for a roman series for ages. A Reyna-POV 3 book Roman series would work perfectly and actually provide something for the collective series, because it’d actually give us some reasons to care about the Roman camp and maybe Jason’s backstory and further flesh him out as a character. I mentioned Clarisse’s quest from TTC earlier - do we lose anything by not knowing what happened on her quest? No. But she’s a major side character who’s been around since book one that we know very little about, and if we need more first-series content to promote the show adaptation, that feels like a great avenue, because we can use it to explore things that we don’t know much about! Like rogue demigods and the Titan Army (with Chris), the Ares cabin (quest members), or Clarisse herself and her backstory and fleshing her out more as a character and her relationships with other beloved first-series characters like Silena and Beckendorf. We can’t get that with Will because he only joined camp right before the Battle for Manhattan (and anything saying otherwise would be an outright retcon, which is even more annoying) and nearly his entire cabin immediately died. Everything we saw in TOA is basically all we’d be able to get from Will. And we already got it - we know where he’s from, when he came to camp, who his mom is, and his relationship with both his parents and his siblings and other campers. We saw who he as a character is in TOA. Yeah, it wasn’t much, but he’s only been around since TLO and barely existed in HoO - he’s a minor character, that’s expected. But all we’re gonna get is more of the same.

Tl;dr: My problem isn’t that it feels like beating a dead horse, my problem with TSATS and Chalice of the Gods is that they feel like cheap and pointless plot lines that are inherently insulting to the audience by refusing to allow any interpretation of the intentional free space left by the narrative and at best is a blatant shoehorning-in of more myths and canonizing random things that don’t add any actual merit to the story, they’re just there to be included.

[dantecampanas]

hello all, i’m pepper and i have never been on time for anything, ever, in my life dsjksdkj, but i am literally so much later than usual though, i am so sorry y’all but to make up for my tardiness under the cut is some stuff about this mess, dante. it’s messed up ride so i hope you enjoy? also, like this if you want to plot and i’ll literally come sprinting okay. 

BIO ; tl;dr basically craig kielburger, but make it dark 

to start here is Dante’s pinterest board.

and here is a song that reminds me of him so much it may as well be his anthem but also this other song because i wrote his app to it basically, it reminds me a lot of him, more the vibe than the actual lyrics but still. 

okay so Dante’s family is kind of inspired by the Quinns (from ‘You’ on Netflix), the Castillos (from How to Get Away with Murder) and like Henry Goulding’s family in Crazy Rich Asians. 

Dante Isaac Campana was brought into the world in Madrid, Spain with a silver spoon dangling out of his mouth. You’d never guess from looking at him, what with his hobo chic style and generally unkempt appearance but it’s the truth. He came in this world out of a well paid surrogate as the second child of the famous Sofia and Gabriel Campana, and he wanted for nothing because for it. His parents made sure of that.

Gabriel was a CEO and Sofia was a wildly successful author, and from the moment Dante could breathe his parents had his whole life set up for him. After all they wanted their son to be successful and they planned to make sure of it. A hefty trust fund in his name, to be accessible at the age of eighteen. A place in the family business that he would fill the moment he finished university. They even had an arrangement for who Dante would marry eventually, before he was even old enough to understand what the concept of marriage was. It was all planned out for Dante without the slightest bit of input from Dante himself, and Dante was just supposed to accept that. The funny thing is, at first, he did.

After all he was young, and he had no reason not to. He loved his parents deeply, passionately, but honestly, that was how Dante loved anything. One of his very first memories of his life is of his grandmother. They used to feed the ducks together when he was a child. Dante would throw whole loaves of bread into the water and his grandmother would always laugh and laugh until there were tears building at the corners of her wrinkled eyes. And one day, the day of the memory in question, Dante remembers her sitting him on her knee, smoothing back his wild curls and telling him that he was born with a heart too big for his body. A heart too big for this family. Dante was too young to know what it meant at the time, but it stuck with him. And by the time he was old enough to understand it, he knew she was right. 

The truth is the Campanas were cold. Dante for the most part was an anomaly. Because while his parents probably did love him in return, they had an odd way of showing it. Cold hands pressed to warm cheeks, thin smiles of approval that didn’t quite reach their eyes. Never the words ‘i love you’, or ‘i’m proud of you’, or ‘i believe in you’, but instead the heavy feeling of expectation. If you wanted love, you had to earn it. If you wanted them to be proud of you, you had to do something to make them proud. Not be a person to make them proud, no. You had to do something. 

So when Dante was twelve years old he did. Not on purpose mind you. Dante wasn’t even thinking of his parents in his pursuit, only of others. You see, when Dante was twelve years old he, mostly accidentally, started a non profit. I say accidentally because that wasn’t really what Dante was setting out to do. Honestly, it all started when he met a homeless teenager not much older than him, sat beside them on the little street corner they begged on, and was struck by the overwhelming, gnawing need to help. To make things better. To protect them, because no one else was doing it. It started with Dante rallying up the children at his private school, and later those children’s parents, and later those children’s grandparents. Or maybe it really started when Dante climbed up on the stage one school assembly, took the mic from their principal’s hands and gave an impromptu speech on the cause. No, to be honest, it really started when someone recorded that speech and put it on YouTube. Because the moment that speech went viral, so did Dante and his charity. 

Even today if you look up Dante Campana you will be assaulted by a myriad of articles and photos of young Dante giving impassioned lectures to interviewers, to audiences, to millions of people over livestream. It was just something that Dante was passionate about that became much bigger than he intended, but he didn’t mind. He was helping people. He used the money that the charity brought in to build youth shelters, and food banks, and rehabilitation centers, all for homeless kids. It was everything he wanted.

And for once, his parents were proud. They loved him. They didn’t say it, but Dante knew it from the way they looked at him. Like he was their pride and joy. (Later, he would look back on that look. It would strike him as disturbingly too close to how one might look at a shiny new trophy, and he would never be able to look at his parents the same way again.)

Dante only became aware of how conditional his parents love for them was when his elder sister started to slip under the pressure they put on her shoulders. Anya Campana was about sixteen at the time, and Dante, three years her younger, had to watch as his sister crumbled. Anya had always cared too much about what their parents thought of her, about impressing them and making them proud. It didn’t help that her parents made it clear that they would not accept anything less than excellence from her, their first born. Anya was supposed to be their champion. The head of the family once their father was gone. The pressure of it all drove Anya to the edge. At first the edge was just adderall. Later cocaine, just to take the edge off, just to make things easier. To help her focus. Dante remembers catching her in the act. Remembers her crying. Remembers being shocked still, and just staring and staring as his perfect sister literally fell apart at his feet. 

It wasn’t long until the weight of their parents expectations had drove Anya to a full on addiction, all in the pursuit of their favour. But of course, when Dante’s parents found out about Anya’s problem, they had no sympathy for her. Only disappointment. That ‘slip up’ cost Anya her role. She could no longer be the head of the family if her resolve was that weak; instead the position would fall to Dante, and Anya would be sent quietly, and shamefully, to rehab. it was an eye opening experience for Dante, honestly. To see just how replaceable their parents saw them.  

The Campanas brand of cold was also fake. Plastic. Sure, they smiled in the public eye and the relationship between the siblings at least was genuine, but the truth was Gabriel was cheating on Sofia when he thought no one was looking (Dante was. A story for another time), and Sofia had openly slapped each of her children across the face at least once, usually when she got a bit too much wine in her. The older Dante got the more and more he felt his love for his parents becoming more of an obligation than anything tangible. Something cold and plastic itself. And he despised it. 

When Dante was fifteen, just after Anya’s second stint in rehab, he and his sister were spending the day together to catch up. All they wanted to do was get ice cream together, talk a bit. But those plans were foiled when a black indistinct car rolled up beside them, and before Anya and Dante could even put up much of a fight, they were both blindfolded and tied up in the back of the car. It honestly shouldn’t have been as surprising as it was considering the Campanas were easily the wealthiest family in Spain. But the kidnapping was traumatic and shocking to Dante, especially because of course all these men wanted was money. 

Their kidnappers called his father with every intention to get said money within the day. They asked him for one billion dollars for each child, which was a lot of money, but not an amount that the Campanas didn’t have, or couldn’t get access to if need be. But it was then that Dante got the second big shock of his life. His father refused to pay. Dante remembers his blood running cold at the statement heard over the speaker. He remembers his sister crying. He remembers the kidnapper shoving the phone into his face, demanding he beg his father otherwise. To convince him to love him enough to pay for his life. Dante remembers crying so much it hurt. Before that day he didn’t know that was possible. 

The kidnappers gave their father a deadline. He had a full twenty four hours to get the money, or they would be killing one of his children. Their father agreed, and so Dante and Anya were left in the hands of their kidnappers for a full day. Dante still hasn’t properly talked to anyone about what happened during that time, and he’s not even sure he can. Honestly, looking back, the memories of it all are all a blur. Like even his hindsight is blurred with his tears. 

The hour came and their father was called. He was asked for the money and told that if he didn’t pay it, his daughter would be shot. Once again, he refused. Dante can remember the gut wrenching sound Anya made at the news. It was at the chilling mid point between a sob and a scream. He can remember crying himself, but trying to comfort her as much as he could with his arms tied behind his back. And because he was touching her, he can remember the exact moment Anya flinched from the gunshot fired into her stomach. He can remember the warmth of her blood over his skin. 

Dante can’t remember much after that. It’s like his mind filmed that day with a fish eye lens and half a roll of film. All blur, until it cuts out. More blur, and then it cuts out. The next thing he properly remembers is being in a hospital bed for shock. He remembers seeing his parents there. And he remembers being filled with a hatred more consuming than anything he ever felt before. Apparently he lunged at his father in a moment of rage. He doesn’t remember it, but enough doctors attested to it for Dante to find himself with a semi permanent place in mandated therapy. Well, due to that specific moment and, you know. The circumstances. 

Dante learned that day that to his father, he and his sister were of different value. Dante was worth more than Anya. He didn’t mess up as much, or quite as publicly, and with everything with his charity, the media loved him. He was smart, and charismatic, and maybe he was a bit sensitive, but he could grow out of that. If they lost Anya, so what? They had Dante. He would lead the family to greatness. 

And Dante did. After an abundance of therapy of course, well, during an abundance of therapy. Despite it all, somehow Dante didn’t buckle under the pressure. He took some time off from school, but once he got back to it his grades were the same as ever. He spent some time away from his charity, but once he was ready, he threw himself back into it with a single minded focus. He made a foundation for Anya, his sister. His world. And then he moved on. Came back stronger. At least in the public eye. 

Privately, Dante was furious, and disgusted, and grieving. His sister, his confidante and likely one of the two people in his life to love him unconditionally, was gone. And she was never coming back. And Dante would never, ever be the same. He remembers attending Anya’s funeral. Seeing everyone cloaked in the colour she always hated, crying over her and telling lies about how much they adored her. He remembers his mother saying how proud she was of her daughter. He remembers his father saying how much he loved her. And he remembers feeling nothing. He remembers getting up on stage, drunk, and numb, and he remembers looking hard at them all. He vaguely remembers telling them all to fuck themselves, but after that? The film cuts out. 

Dante spent a lot of time leaning on his friends then. Hiding from the sharks that were the paparazzi. Dante’s pain was like a healing wound, and they were drawn to it like the animals they were. Picked at to see if they could get him to bleed again. How are you coping, Dante? Will you be testifying in the court case, Dante? How much do you miss Anya, Dante? There is footage of Dante ripping a paparazzo's camera straight out of their hands and throwing it at them. Or at least there was. His father got rid of it before it could truly make it to the press, and the paparazzo, well, he walked away with three new stitches in his eyebrow and a significantly heavier wallet. Dante, for his part, walked away empty. 

The truth was, now Dante was plastic. The bleeding heart that he once was now sadly hollow. He played the part though. And he played it well. To the world Dante was the golden boy. Any mistakes or slip ups were covered up neatly by his father, or his mother, or both. And the legend of Dante Campana, child philanthropist, and hero lived on. Y’see, Dante’s mother wrote a book about the whole experience, and took some creative liberties. In the novel, Dante tried to save his sister. Fought his captors. Held her hand as she bled out. As sick as it is, Dante read it, hoping it might jog some of his memories from the whole incident. It didn’t, but it could have been true for all Dante knew. Didn’t make him hate his mother any less for profiting off of the whole thing. 

Eventually, Dante graduated. Accepted a position at Ashcroft University. And then he was handpicked for the Imperium Society. And that’s where he met Lady Macbeth. 

And It was like for the first time in three years, Dante was living his life in colour again. He fell, and he fell hard, almost immediately upon meeting them, which was as much of a surprise to him as it was anyone else. Yes, Dante had dated before, and had crushes but he didn’t necessarily believe in love. Not after his parents lousy display of the whole thing. But he met them and that changed. He was consumed by love. Driven by it. He would do anything for them, absolutely anything. And he made that very clear very quickly, and never wavered. Not once. 

In the time that Dante loved them he was brought back to some semblance of his old self. He found his passion again. He found his happiness again. And he knew it was because of them. They brought him back to himself. They made him better. And the gratitude, and codependency, and love all stirred itself into a poisonous mess that was more adoration, or rather idolization, than love. What he felt for her was something all consuming and probably not entirely healthy, but something that Dante dedicated himself to, like a religion. 

Which is why when they told him about the issue with Octavia Dante was so incensed about it. For the most part, despite previous outbursts, Dante was kind. A peacekeeper. A joker. A lover. But when it came to those he loved, after everything with Anya, Dante was painfully protective. He promised himself long ago that no one coming after those he loved would get away with it. Not again. 

That said, when Dante went to meet with Octavia he did his best to be calm. To be levelheaded, and understanding, and kind. But Dante’s reputation must have preceded him, because Octavia didn’t seem to see any reason why she should listen to him. Dante was the artist. The charity guy. The hippie. He was about as threatening as a puppy, or at least his public image was. Her words were sharp, and her disposition was cold, and Dante wouldn’t have cared, he truly wouldn’t have cared if the words she spat were just directed at him. But the moment Lady Macbeth was brought into things, Dante snapped, Othello’s presence be damned.

The film cut out. 

The next thing Dante remembers is the aftermath. The water bottle he’d bought to reuse, to spare the plastic, to save the environment, to save the world, now ironically covered in blood. His hands slick with it for the second time in his life. Othello’s understandable panic. The shock was thick as fog once again, and the next thing Dante knows he’s at Lady Macbeth’s door, eyes hollow and hands shaking around the water bottle as he fully realizes what he’s done. 

He never meant to. It was an accident. He lost control. All he wanted to do was protect them. 

But somehow instead they ended up protecting him. And leaving him for Othello. A large part of Dante knows that he deserves nothing less. That what he did is a crime that deserves a much larger punishment, one that Lysander unfairly took on for him. But his heart is heavy with guilt, and now heartbreak on top of it all. 

As if watching Lysander go to prison for his misdeeds and witnessing Lady Macbeth and Othello in their honeymoon phase all wasn’t enough torture, well, then there was Octavia’s ghost. Which was truly the most painful torture at all. Every time she visits Dante just ends up with breaking down. Terrified, guilty and asking for her forgiveness. He’s pretty sure it’s not helping in the slightest though, and he can’t blame her for being angry. She has every right to be, and honestly Dante is quickly reaching the breaking point. He’s seriously considering just turning himself in to appease her, and to make things right for Lysander, and he would do so in a heartbeat if there wasn’t the risk of Lady Macbeth going down with him. So Dante is at a stand still. Miserable, and in pain, but doing his best not to show it to keep up appearances. Luckily it’s an act he’s been putting on for a good portion of his life, so he’s good at it. But he’s crumbling at the edges, and he’s not sure how much longer it’ll take for everyone to notice. 

To cope Dante has been indulging in a lot of his sister’s old habits. Drinking. Drugs. The same mechanisms he used to cope with her death, but quit once he met Lady Macbeth. Now, without them, he’s just using leaning on them in an attempt to make things easier.

PERSONALITY ;  god who knows dkjsdjksd dante is very fresh and new so he’s a bit of a mess in my brain and he will definitely develop into something new passed this point but

PASSIONATE! god he’s so passionate, like dante just feels everything on 10 one hundred percent of the time, especially since lady macbeth came into his life. The type to get teary eyed over a dead bird, but also the type to like stay up five days straight working on a project because he can’t get it out of his mind. 

despite this used to think romantic love was a straight up myth lmao because of his parents relationship, so we love a contradictory king. a bleeding heart but also a philophobe, and now a murderer, wow what a resume. lady macbeth changed that a lot for him, so for like a WHILE dante like became the poetry writing, love is the answer, romantic which had to be a drastic change for anyone who knew him before 

nurturing honestly? but only with people he actually cares about like juliet or lady macbeth.

but also impulsive, as we can see, like dante doesn’t tend to really think before he makes any decisions. he just does things man 

thinks he’s funny! sometimes he is tbh. a bit of a good natured goofball generally. willing to do pretty much anything to cheer someone up

a big ol’ flirt just naturally, like he’s honestly very charming, but like so was ted bundy yk. also bi, but like all my muses are, so sdkjsdkj are we surprised at all, i don’t think so. 

very touchy feely tbh because he’s a tactile person.

a live and let live kinda guy like actually,,, so close to a hippie it’s not even funny. 

a bit promiscuous more so before lady macbeth came into his life and he became entirely enamored, and now a bit because he’s heartbroken and just looking for any sort of connection.

the most generous person when it comes to money and kindness. the type to sit down with a homeless person and end up giving them his jacket, five hundred dollars, and a new outlook on life as he leads them to one of his youth centers. Has actually thrown himself into his charity a lot more since Octavia’s death. Is kind of viewing the whole thing as penance. 

the type to hold a grudge until the day he dies, but also the type of person who can’t NOT help someone who needs help you know. like he hates his parents but if his mother called him tomorrow like i want to see you one last time before i die, he would fly out to spain to see her.

very liberal. literally can’t talk to conservatives without wanting to physically fight them. has definitely gone to protests and gotten arrested for punching a nazi, but his father probably covered it up. 

HEADCANNONS ; alright now onto the fun stuff

fun fact, was actually brought into the world via surrogate because his parents had a lot of trouble conceiving, like both of them were pretty much impotent. so he’s not technically blood related to either of his parents, neither was anya. 

deaf in his left ear and has been all his life. it’s kind of difficult for him to hear a specific person talking in a crowd of too many people, especially if you’re standing on his left so he might straight up text you instead. also if you’re standing on his left side in general, he might turn to face you to better hear you. can speak multiple different sign languages including asl, bsl, auslan, and of course catalan. 

has delightful spanish accent but speaks fluent english because of all the networking he grew up doing with his parents, also you know, very expensive private school. also is fluent in french, italian, romanian and portuguese, like just the romance languages honestly. he’s traveled a lot though so he can get by in a few other languages, which basically means he can hold a stilted conversation and ask where the bathroom is. 

Despite his charity being his life and occupation kind of, at heart Dante is an artist. Like his art is everything to him and his is actually quite popular. He gets a lot of offers from people wanting to buy it but he can never part with anything he’s made so he always refuses the offers, no matter how much money the customer is bidding. It’s not like Dante needs the money anyways, so he has refused offers on grounds of menial things such as ‘i didn’t like the vibes he was giving off’ or ‘he looked like a republican’ or even, once ‘pretty sure i saw that guy in a dream once. god, he sucked.’ So most of his art decorates his dorm room instead, and he’ll even give some to friends for free. Dante actually wanted to become a full time artist once he graduated, along with keeping up with his charity but considering how picky he is about who actually buys his art,  he’ll literally make no money, which is okay because again, he’s rich. Now though, he’s considering just pouring himself into his charity and forgetting about his art because, you know, penance dkjdf.

Actually learned to cook from his family chef, and is really, really good at it, like professional level good at it. He hasn’t really had time to get any actual professional training but he really wants to. He has absolutely snuck into culinary school very briefly before just to sit in on a few classes. Just pretended he went there and made a bunch of friends and he learned a lot of stuff, and even taught some culinary students a few things. He was eventually discovered, but then he made friends with the professor, and now he just comes by whenever he wants or has the time. That’s the kind of guy Dante is. 

Honestly pretty good at anything having to do with his hands, like if he had a label it’d probably be the artisan. Dante is the type of person who knows nothing about like mechanics but can like fix something if you put it in front of him. Likes to make furniture as a hobby, so hit your boy up if you want a sexy chair. Also makes sculptures and does a bit of pottery, like he’s a jack of all trades when it comes to tactile things only. 

Intelligent in the way that he just has a lot of pretty well informed opinions like if you want a fun fact don’t go to Dante but if you want a good insightful conversation he’s your man. Not like… clever at all though, like he doesn’t have a manipulative or conniving bone in his body, and it’s really hard for him to tell when he’s being manipulated or taken advantage of. He thinks with his heart rather than his brain honestly. Like if you’ve ever heard the story of the foolish traveler... that’s Dante’s fool ass. If you haven’t here it is. 

A big defender of the environment. He was planning on launching a charity for that too, and honestly he’s probably throwing himself into that project to stop thinking about all this.  

Has a bunch of tattoos, usually of his own art or other art that’s moved him. I imagine him with at least one sleeve that’s beautiful, and he’s probably starting another. Is seriously considering a neck tat. His parents would hate it and that just makes him love it more.

If you watch jenna marbles i want you to know that Dante is Julian in the kitchen and Julian in the kitchen only, but somehow everything he makes end up coming out near perfect anyways. 

surprisingly has a green thumb? can revive almost any plant with relative ease.

never learnt how to ride a bike tbh, but does ride a motorcycle so?

Has taken to religion like a mad man ever since Octavia’s death, like he’s suddenly at church once a week. He tells everybody that it’s for his art, and that he just wants to study the stained glass, but really he’s praying for Octavia’s forgiveness. He’s pretty sure it’s not working in the slightest though. 

Kind of salty that Octavia of all people is haunting him but he hasn’t seen his sister’s ghost once. Actually kind of believes in the supernatural and karma and all that, so he wasn’t too shocked by the whole Octavia coming to him in the night thing. Always thought that he could feel his sister watching over him so, now at least he has that confirmed. 

suffers from black outs, but i feel like that was obvious in my little bio sksdjkjsd straight up has stretches of time that he has no recollection of. it tends to happen when he gets really angry or in really traumatizing situations but honestly people close to dante probably know that he’s just lost stretches of time like you could mention something from his childhood or even a few weeks ago (actually especially a few weeks ago) and dante would just be like... i don’t remember that. honestly has been feeling like he’s kinda going crazy since his sister died, so literally since he was like fifteen oof. 

has been painting some pretty dark stuff lately like since the whole octavia thing, like just in tone and color. probably a bit reminiscent of the stuff he painted after anya for those who knew him then, but if you met him after lady macbeth then this is a drastic change because his art got very beautiful and full of life then you know. 

[tumblunni]

How do I write an autistic villain without demonizing autism by accident? ;-;

I’m not really sure why you’re messaging this to me. I’m really sorry but I’m not an expert on like.. political stuff about autism stereotyping, just because I’m autistic. And it depends on which country you live in, I know that america has a far more visible sort of cultural presence for stereotypes, due to the whole Autism $peaks controversies. I dont live in america and I’m not super smart or anything, so yeah this is a disclaimer that this is just my opinion and you should probably research answers given by other people too. And maybe ask people about the specific circumstances of what you’re writing, like the context of the setting of the story and what the villain is like, etc. I’d be happy to chat to you about that if you need help! (but again, im no expert, lol)

ANYWAY!

My opinion on the subject is that having an autistic villain is perfectly fine, as long as you’re not villainizing autism. Like...* Don’t make the autism the reason theyre a villain.* Don’t make people scared of them because of the autism, rather than because they’re a villain.* Don’t treat their autistic traits as scary or inherantly villainous.* Don’t make anyone insult them for their autism and act like its justified because they’re evil.

And similarly its bad form to do any of that stuff in regard to any sort of minority really. An example that always bugged me is how Excellus from Fire Emblem Awakening is scary and evil because he’s a murderous monster, yet everyone in the game constantly insults him for the fact he acts ambiguously gay/transgender/effeminate. Like, there’s way too many jokes about people finding him ‘disgusting’ because of some random thing he can’t change, like a sexuality, race or mental illness which plenty of non-evil people have too! It also lessens his impact as a villain because the characters barely even address the actual villainous things he does, and he doesnt seem to have any motive at all. They just ride on the whole ‘the audience will find him gross’ thing as a crutch and forgot to bother writing a good villain.

Oh, and your concerns are indeed valid, yo! Sometimes it is important to think about the context you created a character in, even if you didnt intentionally create any negative messages within your writing.It’s just that the case where a character will be seen as villainizing [minority trait] for being a villain... that’s kind of only in a very specific circumstance? its just that this specific circumstance is very very common in mass media nowadays.It’s ‘The Smurfette Principle’.If you only have one character of a minority in your cast, its easy for an uninformed audience to pick up messages that you’re saying ALL members of that minority are the same as them.If you only have one autistic character and he’s the villain, then you might accidentally be villainizing him. In a world where autistic characters being villainized for their autism is already very common, people could just assume you made them autistic for the same reason all those other writers did- because they think it’s ‘scary’. It feeds the stereotype even if you didn’t conciously intend it that way.

So a very very easy way to fix this problem is just to add multiple characters of a minority into your story, filling various roles from villain to hero to helpful npc. or anything you can think of!

Another good quick fix is to have your villain be autistic, but portray their autistic traits as sympathetic/relateable/a humanizing aspect of them. Not just portraying it as something neutral that doesnt make them scary, but going out of your way to add some scenes showing how they’re just like anybody else. Or even making it one of their redeeming traits!It doesn’t have to outright be something like ��yo being autistic makes me inherantly good and childlike’, which is a stereotype all to itself, lol. But you could show them experiencing predjudice from another character, in a way that makes the audience sympathise. Honestly having a character attack them for being autistic instead of being a villain would be a good way to do this, as long as that character is actually shown as being wrong for what they’re doing. Or simply showing the villain having common autistic traits, facing common problems, doing common everyday things... that can be enough to portray autism positively. Have them shown doing this stuff outside of the situation of them being villainous. It makes them feel more human and less of an abstract symbol of evil. And because these small glimpses of normality are lightening the mood, they become seen as a positive aspect!

KIND OF AN OFFTOPIC TANGEANT SORRYJust my personal experience as an autistic kid experiencing this story... I personally headcanoned Cyrus from pokemon as autistic. Not because he’s ‘scary and emotionless’, but because his backstory was relateable to me as an autistic person. It’s said that his parents were emotionally abusive, and that he had nobody to turn to because everyone thought he was ‘a creepy kid’. And he was able to find solace by obsessing over repairing machines in his bedroom, and apparantly has trouble understanding people because they can’t be fixed as easily. Stuff like maths and science are kind of a stereotypical Special Interest for autistic children to be given in fiction, I guess because it makes you seem more intelligent when you obsess about that instead of video games, norse mythology, or collecting tiny novelty spoons from around the world XD (Yeah i was a weird kid.)So yeah sorry I went a little offtopic there, but the point is that it might have been by accident instead of intention but that villain has a lot of traits that read as autistic. And when i first played Diamond and Pearl I actually disliked him a lot because of that, I felt like they were villainizing someone who seemed relateable and potentially redeemable. I mean, he seemed pretty depressed too! Give that man some therapy! But when I played Platinum and got to learn his backstory I started to feel like the writers actually did want us to feel sympathetic to him, because of how all those ‘scary’ traits were presented so sympathetically. Like.. the backstory isn’t that he became evil because he was an autistic kid who did creepy things like obsess about machinery and suck at social contact. No, he became a villain because he was abused by his parents, him being ‘weird’ is just intended to make it clear here that he didnt deserve it. It makes him pitiable, it makes him relateable, it makes you feel so much more frustrated that nobody listened to him and saved him from that hell, and nobody even seems to remember him fondly, just because he was ‘weird’. And hell, even his ‘emotion is evil’ philosophy seems very relateable to me as an autistic child. It seems like he learned to seclude himself to avoid angering his parents. That’s the impression I got from his final scene in Platinum, where he finally acts angry at you for beating him, then gets angry at himself for expressing emotion and forces himself to go back to how he usually talks. I get a bit pissed off whenever I see fans of the series claim he actually IS emotionless, lol! This scene made it clear to me that this is just a guy who WISHES he was emotionless, somehow seeing it as the only way to be free of pain. Someone who struggles to deal with his own emotions, or feels like he’s disgusting when he expresses them. And this is VERY relateable specifically to an autistic kid who suffered from an abusive parent! “Quiet Hands” is a kind of common concept that autistic kids might experience, that’s the name for a popular ‘parenting technique’ that really fucks people up. Focusing on making your kid never ‘act autistic’, rather than actually helping them understand things. ‘Quiet Hands’ is specifically about slapping or smacking your kid whenever they show stimming behaviour. (Hand flapping being a common way this symptom can manifest.) We’re taught never to be too loud, and to always always have to restrain ourselves to avoid embarassing our parents. We have to try and learn how to act like ‘normal people’ and become scared of harmless parts of our own brain just because theyre ‘embarassing’, leading to even worse emotional problems as an adult. i mean seriously how is it logical to tell a kid who has troubles with social interaction that they shouldnt even practise it?? Plus its a huge mess to teach these kids to do way more emotional labour than neurotypical kids are expected to do, and then treat them like they’re below average intelligence for not being able to do twice as much as everyone else...

ANYWAY! That’s a thinG! Sorry I went rambling off there about how a particular fictional character touched my heart, lol!I just kinda wish he could be canonically autistic, or if I had similar canonically autistic characters to relate to, instead. So i think having more autistic villains can’t be bad, we’re so badly in need of more autistic characters in general! And villains have a unique perspective of being able to hit our emotions the hardest. I think its easier to cry over someone who has a sad backstory of how they became evil, compared to anything else!So yeah what I was trying to say before I went offtopic is that if the backstory is ‘became evil because autism’, then people will complain. But if the backstory is ‘became evil because someone mistreated them because autism’ then that’s a good way to make people sympathise with autism. Aaaaand I’m bad at explaining this, because autism XD Well, i mean, my personal symptoms and lack of diagnosis til I was an adult means that I’m still working on learning how to communicate correctly, I don’t mean every autistic person writes terrible tl;dr advice posts that degrade into pokemon XDOh man i feel embarassed now, you asked me such a polite question and I didnt know how to answer it very well...I just hope maybe I inspired you to go out and do more research, rather than putting you off with my nonsense!

[wineanddinosaur]

6 Tips to Becoming a Better Home Bartender, According to Bartenders

It’s easy to make drinks behind a bar when there is a wholesome selection of equipment at one’s disposal, efficient ways to clean bar tools and reset for the next round of drinks, and a seemingly endless supply of quality ice. Bartending at home, however, is, in most cases, the polar opposite of this experience: working with the bare minimum on all fronts — fewer tools, a sink that may just be a bit too far away for convenience, and a set supply of quality ice that dwindles rapidly after making a couple rounds of drinks.

As we aim to be the best drink slingers and entertainers at home for both ourselves and others — whether it be in person or virtually — it’s important to keep in mind that we need to work within our limits, and make due with what we’ve got. With that in mind, we asked bartenders for their vital tips and tricks to making the best quality drinks at home, all the while striving to be better home bartenders.

1. Invest in the right tools

We can’t ask an artist to paint a picture without giving them the tools and elements to do so. The same applies to bartending at home. (No, Uncle Joe, we can’t make you “one of those fancy drinks” without bar tools or the ingredients to do so.) While there are makeshift options available in most kitchens, investing in a set of tins, a proper jigger to measure, a bar spoon, and the mixing essentials is crucial. (Cocktail Kingdom is a staple for most bartenders and enthusiasts.)

“A good Hawthorne strainer and cone mesh strainer will work much better than whatever flimsy one came in a kit,” says David Mor, bartender at Chicago’s Bad Hunter and founder of hospitality industry publication Spill.

2. Use quality ingredients

Professional bartenders also recommend not skimping on mixing ingredients, which truly make a difference in the overall caliber of the cocktail.

“Choose a good selection of premium spirits and vermouth[s],” Salvatore Calabrese, legendary bartender, author, and founder of the premium liqueur, Acqua Bianca, says. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that mixing is a reason to use cheap alternatives.”

Bartending legend and author Salvatore Calabrese recommends avoiding cheap alternatives to cocktail ingredients.

“Just as a chef will master the classic methods of fine cuisine before going on to be more creative… a bartender must begin with the basics and then go a step further and experiment with flavor,” says Calabrese.

3. Know the classics

The classics are the bedrock from which all other cocktails are born. Without having a compendious understanding of these templates, the likelihood of mixing up something undrinkable is significant.

“Classics give you understanding of flavor profiles, and the way different balances can suit a particular mood,” Ryan Chetiyawardana (a.k.a Mr. Lyan), renowned bartender and owner of Cub and Lyaness in London, Super Lyan in Amsterdam, and Silver Lyan in Washington, D.C., says. “They also give you an easy guide on how to incorporate flavors and ingredients together to make your experiments less wasteful.” Chetiyawardana recently collaborated with Masterclass to develop a mixology course for home bartenders — a great place to start for perfecting the classics.

Ryan Chetiyawardana, a.k.a. “Mr. Lyan,” believes in perfecting the classics to “make your experience less wasteful.”

4. Learn to batch

Cocktails can sometimes be fussy to make, and difficult to keep up with at home for a small group. Batching ingredients ahead of time can help with efficiency and consistency, so learning how to successfully batch at home is helpful. “Any cocktail with a fairly high alcohol content can be batched and placed in the freezer,” Mor says. “But beware if the cocktail is lower on the alcohol content, or has some syrups and low-ABV ingredients in it. You’ll create a slush of a mess.”

When it comes to entertaining others, batching also allows us to be present in the moment and not be overly distracted with the mixing process. “It will be less stressful and enable you to enjoy the company and present an enjoyable drink with ease,” Calabrese says. “A perfect style of drink to batch would be a Negroni as you can pre-mix all the ingredients and store in the fridge until ready to serve, and simply pour over ice and add a slice of orange to bring some freshness to the drink.” Other batch-friendly cocktails include the Martini, Sazerac, Old-Fashioned, and Manhattan.

Bartender David Mor recommends investing in quality bar tools, learning to batch, and utilizing kitchen herbs.

Another way to get creative with batching is with French press cocktails. (Check out VinePair’s ultimate guide to French press cocktails here.)

5. Get creative with the cupboard

Simplicity shouldn’t stunt creativity. Taking the time to make custom ingredients that are multi-faceted and have depth of flavor can make a simple three-part cocktail that is bursting with flavor and complexity. “The easiest way to flex creativity and try something new is to utilize spices and dry ingredients in your cupboards in making syrups, infusions, and tinctures,” Mor says. “When I told my mom she could make a coriander syrup by using her ground coriander, white sugar, and water, it blew her mind.” Fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables in the fridge also come in handy for some of these creative endeavors.

6. Share your recipes

Another important part of bartending is sharing your creations, and whether at a bar or at home, consumer feedback is essential. Being able to communicate recipes and concepts with others through photos or words can be inspirational and educational to other enthusiasts who are eager to try something new; and connecting with others over shared interests is a great way to build community.

For those interested in sharing their creations on their Instagram feeds or elsewhere, Mor recommends demonstrating the process, as well as sharing the recipe. “I focus on posting videos of myself making the drinks and talking through, step-by-step, the process of how to measure the ingredients, shaking and stirring techniques, and garnishing,” Mor says. He then posts the recipe in the caption so others can replicate it at home.

Chetiyawardana believes it’s important to keep presentation simple and relevant to your audience. “But make it personal,” he adds. As those following your drink-making will likely find, “It’s much more interesting to know what’s interesting to you.”

The article 6 Tips to Becoming a Better Home Bartender, According to Bartenders appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/best-home-bartending-guide/

[johnboothus]

6 Tips to Becoming a Better Home Bartender According to Bartenders

It’s easy to make drinks behind a bar when there is a wholesome selection of equipment at one’s disposal, efficient ways to clean bar tools and reset for the next round of drinks, and a seemingly endless supply of quality ice. Bartending at home, however, is, in most cases, the polar opposite of this experience: working with the bare minimum on all fronts — fewer tools, a sink that may just be a bit too far away for convenience, and a set supply of quality ice that dwindles rapidly after making a couple rounds of drinks.

As we aim to be the best drink slingers and entertainers at home for both ourselves and others — whether it be in person or virtually — it’s important to keep in mind that we need to work within our limits, and make due with what we’ve got. With that in mind, we asked bartenders for their vital tips and tricks to making the best quality drinks at home, all the while striving to be better home bartenders.

1. Invest in the right tools

We can’t ask an artist to paint a picture without giving them the tools and elements to do so. The same applies to bartending at home. (No, Uncle Joe, we can’t make you “one of those fancy drinks” without bar tools or the ingredients to do so.) While there are makeshift options available in most kitchens, investing in a set of tins, a proper jigger to measure, a bar spoon, and the mixing essentials is crucial. (Cocktail Kingdom is a staple for most bartenders and enthusiasts.)

“A good Hawthorne strainer and cone mesh strainer will work much better than whatever flimsy one came in a kit,” says David Mor, bartender at Chicago’s Bad Hunter and founder of hospitality industry publication Spill.

2. Use quality ingredients

Professional bartenders also recommend not skimping on mixing ingredients, which truly make a difference in the overall caliber of the cocktail.

“Choose a good selection of premium spirits and vermouth[s],” Salvatore Calabrese, legendary bartender, author, and founder of the premium liqueur, Acqua Bianca, says. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that mixing is a reason to use cheap alternatives.”

Bartending legend and author Salvatore Calabrese recommends avoiding cheap alternatives to cocktail ingredients.

“Just as a chef will master the classic methods of fine cuisine before going on to be more creative… a bartender must begin with the basics and then go a step further and experiment with flavor,” says Calabrese.

3. Know the classics

The classics are the bedrock from which all other cocktails are born. Without having a compendious understanding of these templates, the likelihood of mixing up something undrinkable is significant.

“Classics give you understanding of flavor profiles, and the way different balances can suit a particular mood,” Ryan Chetiyawardana (a.k.a Mr. Lyan), renowned bartender and owner of Cub and Lyaness in London, Super Lyan in Amsterdam, and Silver Lyan in Washington, D.C., says. “They also give you an easy guide on how to incorporate flavors and ingredients together to make your experiments less wasteful.” Chetiyawardana recently collaborated with Masterclass to develop a mixology course for home bartenders — a great place to start for perfecting the classics.

Ryan Chetiyawardana, a.k.a. “Mr. Lyan,” believes in perfecting the classics to “make your experience less wasteful.”

4. Learn to batch

Cocktails can sometimes be fussy to make, and difficult to keep up with at home for a small group. Batching ingredients ahead of time can help with efficiency and consistency, so learning how to successfully batch at home is helpful. “Any cocktail with a fairly high alcohol content can be batched and placed in the freezer,” Mor says. “But beware if the cocktail is lower on the alcohol content, or has some syrups and low-ABV ingredients in it. You’ll create a slush of a mess.”

When it comes to entertaining others, batching also allows us to be present in the moment and not be overly distracted with the mixing process. “It will be less stressful and enable you to enjoy the company and present an enjoyable drink with ease,” Calabrese says. “A perfect style of drink to batch would be a Negroni as you can pre-mix all the ingredients and store in the fridge until ready to serve, and simply pour over ice and add a slice of orange to bring some freshness to the drink.” Other batch-friendly cocktails include the Martini, Sazerac, Old-Fashioned, and Manhattan.

Bartender David Mor recommends investing in quality bar tools, learning to batch, and utilizing kitchen herbs.

Another way to get creative with batching is with French press cocktails. (Check out VinePair’s ultimate guide to French press cocktails here.)

5. Get creative with the cupboard

Simplicity shouldn’t stunt creativity. Taking the time to make custom ingredients that are multi-faceted and have depth of flavor can make a simple three-part cocktail that is bursting with flavor and complexity. “The easiest way to flex creativity and try something new is to utilize spices and dry ingredients in your cupboards in making syrups, infusions, and tinctures,” Mor says. “When I told my mom she could make a coriander syrup by using her ground coriander, white sugar, and water, it blew her mind.” Fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables in the fridge also come in handy for some of these creative endeavors.

6. Share your recipes

Another important part of bartending is sharing your creations, and whether at a bar or at home, consumer feedback is essential. Being able to communicate recipes and concepts with others through photos or words can be inspirational and educational to other enthusiasts who are eager to try something new; and connecting with others over shared interests is a great way to build community.

For those interested in sharing their creations on their Instagram feeds or elsewhere, Mor recommends demonstrating the process, as well as sharing the recipe. “I focus on posting videos of myself making the drinks and talking through, step-by-step, the process of how to measure the ingredients, shaking and stirring techniques, and garnishing,” Mor says. He then posts the recipe in the caption so others can replicate it at home.

Chetiyawardana believes it’s important to keep presentation simple and relevant to your audience. “But make it personal,” he adds. As those following your drink-making will likely find, “It’s much more interesting to know what’s interesting to you.”

The article 6 Tips to Becoming a Better Home Bartender, According to Bartenders appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/best-home-bartending-guide/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/6-tips-to-becoming-a-better-home-bartender-according-to-bartenders

[isaiahrippinus]

6 Tips to Becoming a Better Home Bartender, According to Bartenders

It’s easy to make drinks behind a bar when there is a wholesome selection of equipment at one’s disposal, efficient ways to clean bar tools and reset for the next round of drinks, and a seemingly endless supply of quality ice. Bartending at home, however, is, in most cases, the polar opposite of this experience: working with the bare minimum on all fronts — fewer tools, a sink that may just be a bit too far away for convenience, and a set supply of quality ice that dwindles rapidly after making a couple rounds of drinks.

As we aim to be the best drink slingers and entertainers at home for both ourselves and others — whether it be in person or virtually — it’s important to keep in mind that we need to work within our limits, and make due with what we’ve got. With that in mind, we asked bartenders for their vital tips and tricks to making the best quality drinks at home, all the while striving to be better home bartenders.

1. Invest in the right tools

We can’t ask an artist to paint a picture without giving them the tools and elements to do so. The same applies to bartending at home. (No, Uncle Joe, we can’t make you “one of those fancy drinks” without bar tools or the ingredients to do so.) While there are makeshift options available in most kitchens, investing in a set of tins, a proper jigger to measure, a bar spoon, and the mixing essentials is crucial. (Cocktail Kingdom is a staple for most bartenders and enthusiasts.)

“A good Hawthorne strainer and cone mesh strainer will work much better than whatever flimsy one came in a kit,” says David Mor, bartender at Chicago’s Bad Hunter and founder of hospitality industry publication Spill.

2. Use quality ingredients

Professional bartenders also recommend not skimping on mixing ingredients, which truly make a difference in the overall caliber of the cocktail.

“Choose a good selection of premium spirits and vermouth[s],” Salvatore Calabrese, legendary bartender, author, and founder of the premium liqueur, Acqua Bianca, says. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that mixing is a reason to use cheap alternatives.”

Bartending legend and author Salvatore Calabrese recommends avoiding cheap alternatives to cocktail ingredients.

“Just as a chef will master the classic methods of fine cuisine before going on to be more creative… a bartender must begin with the basics and then go a step further and experiment with flavor,” says Calabrese.

3. Know the classics

The classics are the bedrock from which all other cocktails are born. Without having a compendious understanding of these templates, the likelihood of mixing up something undrinkable is significant.

“Classics give you understanding of flavor profiles, and the way different balances can suit a particular mood,” Ryan Chetiyawardana (a.k.a Mr. Lyan), renowned bartender and owner of Cub and Lyaness in London, Super Lyan in Amsterdam, and Silver Lyan in Washington, D.C., says. “They also give you an easy guide on how to incorporate flavors and ingredients together to make your experiments less wasteful.” Chetiyawardana recently collaborated with Masterclass to develop a mixology course for home bartenders — a great place to start for perfecting the classics.

Ryan Chetiyawardana, a.k.a. “Mr. Lyan,” believes in perfecting the classics to “make your experience less wasteful.”

4. Learn to batch

Cocktails can sometimes be fussy to make, and difficult to keep up with at home for a small group. Batching ingredients ahead of time can help with efficiency and consistency, so learning how to successfully batch at home is helpful. “Any cocktail with a fairly high alcohol content can be batched and placed in the freezer,” Mor says. “But beware if the cocktail is lower on the alcohol content, or has some syrups and low-ABV ingredients in it. You’ll create a slush of a mess.”

When it comes to entertaining others, batching also allows us to be present in the moment and not be overly distracted with the mixing process. “It will be less stressful and enable you to enjoy the company and present an enjoyable drink with ease,” Calabrese says. “A perfect style of drink to batch would be a Negroni as you can pre-mix all the ingredients and store in the fridge until ready to serve, and simply pour over ice and add a slice of orange to bring some freshness to the drink.” Other batch-friendly cocktails include the Martini, Sazerac, Old-Fashioned, and Manhattan.

Bartender David Mor recommends investing in quality bar tools, learning to batch, and utilizing kitchen herbs.

Another way to get creative with batching is with French press cocktails. (Check out VinePair’s ultimate guide to French press cocktails here.)

5. Get creative with the cupboard

Simplicity shouldn’t stunt creativity. Taking the time to make custom ingredients that are multi-faceted and have depth of flavor can make a simple three-part cocktail that is bursting with flavor and complexity. “The easiest way to flex creativity and try something new is to utilize spices and dry ingredients in your cupboards in making syrups, infusions, and tinctures,” Mor says. “When I told my mom she could make a coriander syrup by using her ground coriander, white sugar, and water, it blew her mind.” Fresh herbs, fruits, and vegetables in the fridge also come in handy for some of these creative endeavors.

6. Share your recipes

Another important part of bartending is sharing your creations, and whether at a bar or at home, consumer feedback is essential. Being able to communicate recipes and concepts with others through photos or words can be inspirational and educational to other enthusiasts who are eager to try something new; and connecting with others over shared interests is a great way to build community.

For those interested in sharing their creations on their Instagram feeds or elsewhere, Mor recommends demonstrating the process, as well as sharing the recipe. “I focus on posting videos of myself making the drinks and talking through, step-by-step, the process of how to measure the ingredients, shaking and stirring techniques, and garnishing,” Mor says. He then posts the recipe in the caption so others can replicate it at home.

Chetiyawardana believes it’s important to keep presentation simple and relevant to your audience. “But make it personal,” he adds. As those following your drink-making will likely find, “It’s much more interesting to know what’s interesting to you.”

The article 6 Tips to Becoming a Better Home Bartender, According to Bartenders appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/best-home-bartending-guide/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/619366211907633152